Desire vs. Discipline

The scene is all too familiar.  You barely crack open one eye to glance at the blaring alarm clock and think to yourself, “Am I crazy? The sun isn’t brave enough to show its face at this hour!”  Then you think of a million reasons for why you should remain in your warm, cozy bed instead of grabbing some coffee and spending some quality time reading God’s Word.  Of course, every time a victory’s won in this daily battle, you look back, grateful that you came, and that you took the time to drink in the Living Water and feast on the Bread of Life.  You wonder how you could have ever hesitated to make the choice.

Anyone else with me? 

I find too often that my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak.  Many of us would profess that we really do love the Lord.  We want to know Him and to serve Him.  It’s when the rubber meets the road that we struggle to follow through.

For the past few weeks, I have been contemplating the balance between desire and discipline.  I think we would all agree that as we grow in our walk with the Lord, our desire to spend time with Him and to obey His commands would also increase.  But how do we birth such a desire within our hearts?  Everything fiber of our natural sinful self is repulsed by the life God designed for us to live.

Here is where discipline comes in.  It takes discipline to wake up early and read the Word.  It takes self-restraint to deny pleasure and spend time praying or memorizing Scripture.  It is hard to put others’ needs before your own and actively seek out ways to serve those around you.  And yet, there must be a balance.  All the Bible knowledge in the world and hours spent serving others come to naught if they are done in pride and selfishness.  The Lord is after a heart that truly desires Him.  And we obey Him not out of obligation or to pay Him back.  We obey Him because we love Him. 

But here is the beautiful thing.  When we submit to the Lord’s leading and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, though we may be resistant at first, God has an amazing and gracious way of softening our hearts in the end.  When we discipline ourselves to give up a little sleep, skip that TV show, save the workout for later, let the unending to do list rest for a moment, or whatever it is that keeps us occupied and far away, and make the time to spend with our Creator God, we are blessed with desire.  Maybe not the first time or even the second time, but gradually our Father begins to change our desires.  It’s almost like we have to get the other stuff out our system.  Starve the sickness or addiction that sucks away our life.  Remember Psalm 37:4?  We like to quote it, but do we really want it to characterize us?  “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Wow. What grace.  So then-

“…discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds the promise for the present life and also for the life to come…For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the Living God, the Savior of all men, especially of believers.”

1 Timothy 4:7-10